Li Changge
Li Changge (李長歌) is the main heroine and a lead protagonist of Chang Ge Xing. She is also known as Qin Lili (秦離離), the princess of the Uyghurs and a merchant of the Yanhangmen, and as Yongning (永寧), the "late" imperial princess of the Tang dynasty. Followings her family's execution by Li Shimin in order to become Emperor, she swears her life to take revenge for her family's death and flees Chang'an to Shuo Province under the guise of a man with her new discipline Adou to begin a revolution. However, along her journey she gains many friends, experiences and hardships and ultimately abandons her plan for vengeance in turn for seeking the future prosperity of Tang dynasty. Appearance Personality Li Chang Ge is incredibly intelligent and observant. Her quick wit allowed her to rise the ranks of the Shuo military quickly and she was a lead strategist and military captain in Shuo Province under Gong Sun Heng. She set in place traps that pushed back the enemies. Besides Han, she is also fluent in the language of the Turks as well as the Uyghur dialect, the latter of which she secretly learnt in two years for her mother. She is an incredibly talented strategist and is also skilled with the sword and crossbow. She has the ability to take action swiftly and decisively and understands situations very quickly. She is uncannily wise for her age, and extremely mature. She first swears revenge for her family and to kill her uncle. However, she soon realizes that killing a single man would only cause further chaos for Tang. Her heart lies with the people and she decides that what she truly wants is not her uncle's death but prosperity for Tang. History Synopsis Introduction arc General Yuchi Jingde along with soldiers under his command chase Yonging in pursuit as she flees from them on horseback. Yongning stabs her horse in the back in order to lunge herself across a river canyon. Her horse falls into the river below, but she stands on the other side watching her pursuers come to a halt across on the other side. A horseman aims his bow to shoot an arrow at her, but before he could shoot, he is stopped by Yuchi Jingde who tells him to let her go as it is expect of his disciple. Somewhere in an inn in Chang'an, Yongning awakens from a nightmare, dresses up and heads out to leave. She wears male clothing and has taken on the guise of a merchant boy. On her way out, she sells some of her jewelry to the innkeeper as pawning them off the streets could be risky. As she walks away, she slips out a hair ornament from her sleeve and wonders if her mother slipped it into her bag. She decides to keep it as a memento in her memory. On horseback, she heads out of the city gates and mutters a goodbye to the city of Chang'an. Yongning thinks to herself that if she is able to survive, she won't be like her mother who lived as a target of mockery. Riding through a forest, she encounters two rogue bandits who demand that she hand over all of her valuables or else she will be killed. Yongning tells them that they will kill her anyway to which, they respond by pointing a sword to her neck. One bandit observes that her valuables are of exceptional quality and speculates that she likely stole them from the imperial palace during the commotion. In a quick act, Yongning slashes the arm of one of the bandits and shoots the horse of the other with a crossbow to ground him. Pointing the crossbow at the bandit on the ground, she tells them that she has a copper-platted, poison-tipped repeating crossbow and with a slip of the finger, it may easily go off. In fear, the other bandit pleads for her to show them mercy. Yongning ties the both of them to a tree and loots them off their coins. As she is about to leave, one of the bandits attempts to bargain that by blurring out that he could help her with looting the funerary offerings of the late Princess Yongning and her mother if she frees them both. Taking this information, she leaves them tied to the tree and rides off anyway. Back in Chang'an at a restaurant house, Yongning orders sweets. Two boys arguing come out with a takeaway box. The older boy kicks the younger boy away and orders him to do the delivery as he throws the takeaway box into his hands. Yongning takes the takeaway box from the boy and tells him that she does not need it delivered. The boy coming after her, is halted by a group foreign traders walking the streets with elephants and dancers. Seeing Yongning's stunned expression at the traders, he asks if she is from another city. Yongning throws a coin into the boy's hands and tells him to not follow her. At the entrance of the Rong'en temple, Yongning asks the guarding soldiers who ordered a delivery from Pinxiangzhai. The guards become tempted after recognizing that they are the city's famous sweets. One guard orders Yongning to eat one first out of suspicion. Yongning follows the guard's order, eats one and proclaims how delicious they are. The guards fall for her trick and eat the sweets. Next, Yongning is seen, standing in front of the altar as all the soldiers lie dead on the ground. Speaking to herself while looking at the funeral altars, she tells that the one that should have been alive is dead, while the one that should have been dead is alive.She says to herself that didn't know that her mother was ready to die. From behind her, Wei Zheng appears in the doorway holding the delivery boy unconscious under one arm. He tells Yongning that if she knew her mother would kill herself, she would have never ran away. Dropping the boy, Wei Zheng tells her he cannot fight and will leave it to Yongning to clean up her mess. She remarks that he only recently narrowly escaped death and must be asking to die by getting involved with her. Looking down at one of the dead guards, he replies that luckily no one remains alive as a witness. He questions how did she manage to get all the guards to eat poisoned sweets, to which Yongning reveals that all were poisoned, but she kept the antidote hidden under her nails. Wei Zheng praises her ability to have a victory without battle, but wonders if she is not afraid if the soldiers had a chance of recognizing her as the imperial princess. Gleefully, she tells that if they had recognized her and revealed her as the princess, then all those who have covered up her death would be put to death. Wei Zheng warns her that for that exact reason, she must be careful. Yongning, angered that by the fact that he along with most of the Tang Imperial Court turned a blind eye to her uncle, Li Shimin, murdering her father and other uncle, questions why he covers up her death: if it is out of pity as she was once his disciple or if he wants to ease his consciousness from the events, or if it is out of pity for her as a woman that cannot become an emperor of Tang. In response, Wei Zheng states that the path he follows puts the people first, his country second, and his emperor last. Laughing at his answer, Yongning returns a sinister stare at Wei Zheng as breaks her hair piece and unveils that her path is, for as long as she is alive, to kill her uncle and emperor, Li Shimin. The next day, Yonging sneaks into the office of Wang in the Judaical Hall. She hangs from the ceiling beams by her feet as she reads the latest reports from around Tang. She examines the details of latest reports, but finds unreliable information as the only current reports are about ongoing battle in Shuo Province against the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and a rebellion in the eastern mountains who are likely not any help to her as they have already been defeated and do not have the power to stand against the emperor. Additionally, she realizes because she has been designated as "deceased", she cannot convince her father's former subordinates to rebel with her. Out loud, she tells herself that given the situation, assassination would be the best choice. Two soldiers who hear her voice barge into Wang's office and look around, but brush it off as they thought it was just their imagination. As the two leave, Yongning is seen hiding on an outside beam. She decided to do something about the delivery boy she met earlier as he could expose her. Yongning splashes water on Adou's face to wake him up. She hurls throwing knives around his head, one scarring his cheek, and points a blade in his mouth. She tells him that she could easily kill him, however resorts to swearing him into secrecy about the recent incident or else he will die. Stunned at first, Adou suddenly pronounces her as his "master" and begs her to take him on as a disciple. She kicks him away and flees on horseback, but Adou runs in pursuit believing that she is just testing him. While running after Yongning in pursuit, Adou trips and falls. Yongning comes back for him and says she will bring him back to Pinxiangzhai. Adou attempt to convince Yonging to take him on as a disciple as the two are walking in the streets of Chang'an back to the Pinxiangzhai. Yongning looks over to the commotion at the city gates where she over hears soldiers receive an order to close the gate in an hour. As the two approach Pinxiangzhai, they stand aghast staring at the sight of the flames consuming the restaurant. On lookers watch on as they exclaim that they feel sorry for all the workers who are lost in the flames. Adou attempts to approach the site, but is stopped by Yongning who tells him to not looks suspicious as armed soldiers stand on guard. She apologizes to him and says all of this is her fault. Adou questions if the people who want her dead done this, to which she replies no and says that it was done by the people who her to peacefully disappear. The two turn around and walk away from the scene. Yongning asks if he has any family, but Adou reveals that he was a refugee taken in by the Pinxiangzhai and that he has no where to go. The gates of Chang'an close as Yongning and Adou ride away on the back of a hay cart. Yongning states that she plans to travel to Shuo province and she will give him some money to settle down. He wonder if it is to slip into the ongoing battle to create quick money. Adou asks what her motives are, to which she reveals that she plans to bring back an army to Chang'an and kill Li Shimin. Relationships ''Eastern Turkic Khaganate 'Ashina Sun Changge and Ashina Sun were initially enemies during the siege of Zhangzhou. Following the city's fall, Changge was taken into Ashina Sun's khaganate where she become became a valuable advisor to Sun. The two eventually gain mutual respect for each other and swear "brotherhood" to one another after they both save each others' lives. After Mimiguli's death and Changge's sudden disappearance, Ashina Sun agrees to temporarily join the Yanhangmen's search for Changge. Despite Qin Gu informing him that Changge is actually female, Ashina Sun still joins their search and heads to Chang An with them. During their time in Chang An, Ashina Sun now seeing Changge as a female, begins to develop romantic feelings for her and slowly becomes more and more protective of her health as he blames himself for Changge's persistent cough. Despite their rocky beginning, it is implied both that Changge and Sun have developed mutual romantic feelings for each other. In his conversation with Elteber Pusa where he offers a consideration of marriage to Changge in exchange for cooperation, Ashina Sun blushes at the thought, but informs Pusa that regardless of what he exchanges, he would offer marriage to Changge anyway so long as she wishes for it. He tells Pusa that once he has carved out a safe place where there no longer exists any danger to their lives, he will ask for her hand in marriage. Both of them have currently yet to express their feelings to each other. Mujin Mimiguli Yanhangmen Qin Gu He is an extremely capable individual and his rich past experiences allows him to save Changge as well as Ashina Sun multiple times. In his heyday, he started the famous Yanhangmen trade route. He revives this trade route under Changge. Changge entrusts many of her affairs and plans with him. Adou Changge initially met Adou when she ordered steamed buns from a vendor that Adou worked for. This led to Changge being tracked down and Adou's home being set aflame, with no survivors remaining, he was left homeless. Changge feeling regret for her actions, allowed Adou to follow her as a disciple after finding out that they mutually want to kill Li Shi Min. Together, they traveled to Zhangzhou, the capital of Shuo Province and worked together to gain the trust of the governor. Following his death and the fall of Shuo Province at the hands of Ashina Sun, Changge ordered Adou to flee the province along with Qin Gu and the governor's late daughter. The three eventually re-founded the YanhangMen. Xu Feng They met in Shuo Province when he was working under Governor Gong Sun Heng and Changge bet her life with Xu Feng's loyalty to the Governor. He now follows Changge and also leads the Yanhangmen with Qin Gu and Adou. He is also in charge of gaining intelligence from their current base of operations in Chang An. Uyghurs Pusa Lady Mother Tang Imperial Court Li Jiancheng Li Jin Li Shimin Li Yuanji Wei Zheng Other relationships Gong Sunheng Situ Langlang Abilities & powers Changge is fluent in the language of the Han and learned the language of the Uyghurs in 2 years in order to please her mother.Chang Ge Xing: Chapter 42.1, Pages 8-9 Trivia * Her names have several meanings: ** '''Changge: long, leader, superior (長) + to sing, song (歌) ** Yongning: eternal, forever, always (永) + peaceful, tranquil (寧) ** Lili: very distant, far far, separated (離離) References Category:Characters Category:Female characters Category:Han characters Category:Uyghur characters Category:Yanhangmen Category:18 Horsemen of Yanyun